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Zuckerberg put $1B Instagram deal on hold to watch ‘Game of Thrones’

Buying the world’s most popular photo-sharing app for $1 billion is a big deal and all, but it’s no reason to miss the newest episode of HBO’s "Game of Thrones," at least not for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In the new Vanity Fair article all about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in April 2012, Kara Swisher writes that Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom was on the phone with his lawyers while Zuckerberg and friends watched the show:

“Their back-and-forth was interrupted by a television-watching party for 'Game of Thrones' that Zuckerberg, an avid fan, was throwing.”

"Game of Thrones" is one of the shows Zuckerberg ‘likes’ on Facebook, along with "Saturday Night Live," "The West Wing," and "Rome."

The deal went through, of course, leaving Twitter, which had offered $520 million for the app during a meeting around a campfire, out in the cold.

“I was heartbroken, since I did not hear from Kevin at all,” Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey told Swisher.

Campfires and TV-watching parties as the settings for 9- and 10-figure business deals have a quaintness about them that confirm the eccentricities of Zuckerberg and CEOs like him. Writing about the Twitter campfire meeting at Mashable, blogger Kris Holt said, “Silicon Valley is so casual.”

Of course, the big winner here has to be HBO. When the world’s youngest billionaire takes a break from spending $1 billion to buy Instagram to watch a TV show, people are going to think that’s probably a show worth watching.